John Delach

I had invited Dave Walker of Better Roofing to inspect our aging roof. As I expected, he didn’t have anything nice to say about its condition. Long story short, it had to be replaced. Our town has peculiar rules and regulations including the need for a permit to change a roof, unless the work is done in one day on a Saturday.

We picked the coming Saturday, June 23^rd. “Dave, you do know we currently have three roofs on top of the house?”

“Certainly, I’m aware of that, but my roofers will rake off all three with plenty of time left to add all elements of the new roof on Saturday.”

On Saturday, Dave’s acting foreman, Jorge, was waiting outside our house by 6:30. The six-man crew arrived at 7, proceeding to place tarps all around our property. At 7:30, a truck began to deliver various roofing material and the crew took to ladders like a practiced army to prepare for ready themselves for the town’s 8 am starting time.

They went to work raking the roof in sections and depositing the bulk of the derbies into an open truck parked on our driveway. The day was hot, part of a heat wave we were suffering through. Temperatures reached the 90s while we were still in the morning. Around 11, I  offered the crew water from our refrigerator. When they broke for lunch at noon, I offered them another round. Every time I did, the bottles of Poland Spring were universally accepted.

It seemed to me the sun was taking its own toll on the crew’s speed and stamina. By 2 in the afternoon, I noticed an area of bare wood that covered three of our four bedrooms. I was facing west, so I didn’t notice the black cloud heading our way from New York City. Not for long, however. It began to fill the sky. True, the forecasters had predicted the possibility of thunder storms, but not until later in the day. Well, they lost that bet as did I. The rain came quickly and it came ugly. It didn’t last long, maybe twenty minutes and the roofing crew didn’t seem all that excited.

Most of them continued to work through the storm unconcerned about the lightning. Perhaps the rain cooled them off. I did worry about their safety, but it seemed I was alone acting this way.

They kept going until after 7 pm including clean-up. As they were preparing to leave, Jorge explained to Mary Ann and me that they still had some minor work remaining and that he and two other workers would return on Sunday at 9 am.

Pizza for dinner. We finished around 7 pm. As we were cleaning up and preparing to watch television, we heard a thump from somewhere in the house. Not too loud, but enough to get our attention. We shook our heads, but didn’t do anything about it.

Instead, we watched our show, or most of it when I asked Mary Ann to pause it so I could use the bathroom. I decided to use the one upstairs off of our bedroom. When I opened the bedroom door, I stopped dead in my tracks. The floor in front me was white. For a second, I was stunned until I realized I was looking at what had been our bedroom ceiling. O.M.G! OH MY GOD, lots of foul language interspersed with calls to Mary Ann to come quickly.

Instead of just standing there, Mary Ann was resourceful enough to take three photographs of the ceiling and its bare wooden rafters. The beddings, furniture and every surface in the room was full of what had been sheet rock, fiber board and insulation. Mary Ann sent the three photos to Mr. Walker with a cry for help.

He did reply rather quickly that he had ordered two workers to our house that evening to dispose of all of the wet debris. We also called our neighbors, Rob and Linda who knew Walker. Linda and Mary Ann removed all of the wet bedding to our laundry to wash and dry it all the next several days. The two men worked past 10 pm and promised that a full crew including painters  would be present on Sunday.

Today is Wednesday June 25 and our restoration continues. We discovered moderate to severe damage to the other rooms on the second floor. My office was so badly damaged that the insulation and wall boards had to be completely removed and replaced. I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out and praise Walker for the incredible resources he threw at this disaster from Sunday to Wednesday. Most importantly, he was there when we needed him. To be Continued,

On the Outside Looking In will not publish again until July 17.